Mum attacking kitten- anything we can do?

[Alakazam8]

This is for a family member, I only have one! She has a mum and it’s kitten. The kitten was neutered earlier this week and since then the mother cat has been hissing at the kitten and not been behaving as usual towards her. This evening she jumped on the kitten and bit her. She has tried wiping them both with a damp cloth, to try to transfer the smell, put Feliway Friends in yesterday and tried giving them loads of reassurance and attention. The kitten is still wearing a jacket to protect the wound and I wondered if that’s making a difference.
Is there anything else we can do to improve the situation?
she’s worrying she may need to rehome one which would be heartbreaking for her.

Mother cats naturally drive their kittens away after a certain age to encourage them to hunt and become
independent. That may be what is happening here.

Our mum cat did this, we rehomed the kitten to a neighbour. Was a sad situation as would’ve loved to have kept both.
Maybe ring the vet, see if they have any advice.

We would hope to avoid rehoming, is there anything else we could/should try first?

We are back at vet on tues so will ask them then if they have any advice

I don't know how to manage it. I do know that mums and kittens can work hard to drive each other off. I took in a stray who promptly had kittens. The kittens drove the mum back off before I could get them new homes.

It could also be the kitten smells different having been at the vets.

Have you tried re-introduction from scratch? One in a bathroom and all that, then cage/smell/bed transfer and so on. We have 2 cats (non-related) and the younger one still hunts and terrorises the older so we just watch them and separate when we go out. It works for us as we love them both and wouldn't rehome in any case.

She probably doesn’t recognise her own kitten because if the vet smell. Continue to rub a facecloth or something on the cats mouth at the side where the sent glands are and then rub the cat scent on the kitten.

Feliway friends made 2 of ours fight even worse than usual!

It’s the vet smell. My boy cat attacked his brother when he’d been at the vet.

You need @thecatneuterer

Thanks- will try rubbing the side of the face in particular and will find out about keeping them separate and reintroducing one in case I need to do that with one of them.
Hoping it will settle when kitten is recovered!

Will @thecatneuterer be able to help? Are they a pp?

Hi - I wish I did have some words of wisdom, but I can't really suggest anything other than has already been suggested. However I'm sure it won't last - it will be because the kitten smells different/is wearing a jacket. I'm sure, after a couple of weeks, all will be back to normal. In the interim if they can borrow a dog cage from somewhere then I would put the kitten in a dog cage, with litter, bed, food, so that they can interact without danger and get used to each other again.

Thanks so much @thecatneuterer. The kitten is in a cage at present so we are doing everything possible. Looks like if we can ride it out we will get there. If Feliway is going to help would it take some time or work straight away?

Unfortunately Feliway plug in takes weeks. I think the spray is a bit more instant. (Not an expert)

Thanks again @thecatneuterer

We had a similar experience. Mum was fine with her boy kitten until she went into season. She then started going for him, hissing and spitting. We had her booked in for neutering but vets closed due to covid outbreak. Unfortunately she continued being mean even after both neutered. He was so confused, she went from loving mum to nasty piece of work overnight. I did consider rehoming him but I really didn't want to. I got my son to take her away for a month to see if that helped. Anyway, we persevered, bought feliway, fed them separately, she would hardly come downstairs and wanted nothing to do with him. Now some 9 months later she tolerates him, sometimes she even plays with him. She still hisses at him sometimes. Its been a long haul but I think that we are over the worst and things have finally settled down. I think most cats will learn to live together but I would say that although she swiped, hissed and spat at him she didn't attack him. He is now much bigger than her but has a much softer nature.

I recently took on a kitten with an established adult male. It took weeks to get them properly introduced and friendly. Then when kitten was spayed it was like back at day 1 with hissing/aggression from older cat. When kitten could take jacket off all calmed down.. I think that as she couldn’t groom properly she didn’t smell right. I would stick with it and see if taking jacket off in a few days helps things settle.

We had this with our mum-boy kitten rescue pair. Hissed and scrapped like mini tigers for a few months after we got them but as he grew to (huge) adult size they settled down and now they only hiss occasionally at each other. Usually when waiting for us to feed them. They're now 8 and ?10 and asleep at opposite ends of the sofa. Have never curled up together to sleep like siblings sometimes do, but they're ok with each other. I think it's a time thing.

I think it's generally the smell.

Whenever any of ours come back from the vet, there's hissing/growling and the odd spat. It fades in time but it could take a week or two!

Thanks for the reply’s- that’s all reassuring. Hopefully it’ll settle down soon, they are both unhappy/ stressed and we can’t keep kitten in the cage forever...
Hopefully it will improve when the jacket comes off.

We had this with mummy and kitten, they were amazing together and playing and she fed him until he was 19 weeks old and then she suddenly turned on him hissing and swiping and he looked frightened. We tried feliway friends and it didnt help. Everything I read online said it was natural and they should not be kept as a pair and siblings are better together. It suggested that it was the mother telling the kitten to bog off into the big wide world now she has done her bit.

I hope it improves for your family member.